Iran’s Child Soldiers in Syria

(HRW) – “How old are you?” the interviewer asks. “Thirteen,” replies the boy, in uniform. “Thirteen years – thirteen years old!” the interviewer repeats, proudly, as the camera pans upward to the grinning, bearded faces of uniformed men, apparently Iranian soldiers, who pat their young recruit on the back. On November 25, a video with the logo of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) agency circulated on Iranian websites and social media showing the boy in the Syrian border city of Abu Kamal. He said he was a “defender of the shrine,” the euphemism the Iranian government uses for fighters it sends to Syria and Iraq.

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